Ẓafār, biblical Sephar, classical Sapphar, or Saphar, ancient Arabian site located southwest of Yarīm in southern Yemen. It was the capital of the Ḥimyarites, a tribe that ruled much of southern Arabia from about 115 bc to about ad 525. Up until the Persian conquest (c.ad 575), Ẓafār was one of the most important and celebrated towns in southern Arabia—a fact attested to not only by Arab geographers and historians but also by Greek and Roman authors. After the extinction of the Ḥimyar kingdom and the rise of Islām, Ẓafār gradually fell into decay.

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...the inland Sabaean kingdom of its former importance as a centre for overland trade. The Ḥimyarites (classical Homeritae) inherited the Sabaean language and culture, and from their capital at Ẓafār their power at times extended eastward as far as the Persian Gulf and northward into the Arabian Desert. At the beginning of the 4th century ad, the Ḥimyar capital was...